In a legal twist that the family of Sonya Massey didn’t expect, the murder conviction of her killer, former Sangamon County sheriff’s deputy, Sean Grayson, likely will be erased because of his death during an ongoing court appeal.
Grayson’s lawyers cite the well-established legal doctrine of “abatement ab initio” – striking down something as if it never happened – in a Sept. 10 motion that asks the Fourth District of the Illinois Appellate Court to throw out Grayson’s October 2025 second-degree murder conviction.
The filing, agreed to by the Illinois State’s Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor Office, is part of documents that would end Grayson’s appeal of his murder conviction after his Aug. 23 death while in custody somewhere outside Illinois.
The filing was expected by lawyers involved in the case, and the requested nullification of the conviction is expected to be granted by the Appellate Court.
But this bureaucratic turn was surprising to the Massey family and is upsetting, according to Sonya Massey’s nephew, Sontae Massey of Springfield.
“This is another reason why we need to reform our system,” Sontae Massey, 55, told Illinois Times. He said the Massey family resents the legal system condoning efforts to “take the dirt off of this killer’s name.”
Sontae Massey added: “Even in death, it still feels like he wields power over our family, and the system allows him to. We will fight this tooth and nail. It is something that I never expected but I knew was coming. … We’ve got a lot of work to do as a country.”
Dan Fultz, one of Grayson’s defense attorneys, declined comment on the agreed motion.
Grayson, 32, was dealing with advanced colon cancer that had spread to his liver and lungs when he died. He was being held at “a facility outside Illinois” at the time, according to Illinois Department of Corrections spokesperson Naomi Puzzello.
Grayson’s attorneys wrote in the Sept. 10 filing that “due to the secretive nature of defendant’s confinement,” attorneys have “been unable to obtain his death certificate as of the date of this filing.”
Grayson, who was white, shot and killed Sonya Massey, 36, who was Black, in her unincorporated Woodside Township home on July 6, 2024, after a tense exchange with Massey inside her home after she had called 911 because she suspected a prowler in the neighborhood.
The shooting, captured on police-worn bodycam video that went viral, gained national media attention and resulted in Massey’s name being included in the ongoing, nationwide discussion involving Black people who have died at the hands of police under questionable circumstances.
The Sept. 10 court filing, which notes that Grayson died in custody “as a result of his medical conditions,” says Grayson deserves to have his conviction thrown out because of Illinois Supreme Court precedent that has stood for more than 20 years involving a criminal defendant’s direct appeal of his or her conviction.
“Abatement derives from the fundamental principle of our jurisprudence that a criminal conviction is not final until resolution of the defendant’s appeal as a matter of right,” Grayson’s attorneys argued in the filing.
The attorneys wrote that “fairness requires more than simply dismissing his appeal as moot. The doctrine of abatement ab initio applies squarely in this case. Defendant timely invoked his right to direct appeal on May 14, 2026. That appeal remained pending and unresolved when he died on Aug. 23, 2026.”
Fultz and his attorney colleagues Mark Wykoff and Natalia Galica cited caselaw that says, “when an appeal has been taken from a criminal conviction to the court of appeals and death has deprived the accused of his right to our decision, the interests of justice ordinarily require that he not stand convicted without resolution of the merits of his appeal, which is an ‘integral part of our system for adjudicating his guilt or innocence.'”
The attorney wrote that “accordingly, because defendant died before this court could resolve his direct appeal, the only disposition consistent with binding Illinois precedent is to abate the appeal, and vacate the conviction and all underlying criminal proceedings ab initio.”
